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passé composé

American  
[pah-sey kawn-poh-zey] / pɑ seɪ kɔ̃ poʊˈzeɪ /

noun

French.

  1. a grammatical construction of French consisting of the present tense of an auxiliary, either avoir or être, followed by a past participle and corresponding in function to both the English present perfect and the English simple past tenses.

Etymology

Origin of passé composé

Literally, “compound past”

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.